


What More Perfect Rendezvous?

by misaffection



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-26
Updated: 2011-04-26
Packaged: 2017-10-18 16:39:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/190979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misaffection/pseuds/misaffection





	What More Perfect Rendezvous?

P3X-694 was simply the most gorgeous planet Sam had ever been on. It looked an awful lot like New Zealand. Or possibly Middle Earth. If a couple of hobbits turned up, she doubted that she’d be surprised. Just as long as there weren’t any dragons...

Smirking at that thought, she turned to Baal. Sat on the ground by the DHD with his legs crossed, all his attention was on her tablet computer. He’d actually been silent for a good ten minutes, which was quite the record.

She wandered over. “Any luck?”

Nothing. He was so utterly absorbed, she reckoned that he’d probably not notice if she took off her clothes. She nudged him with a toe.

“Baal.”

“Huh, what?”

“I asked you a question.”

He arched his back, stretching out with a soft groan. “The core is dead,” he replied, tone indicating exactly what he thought of that. “I could bypass it, but I’d need another power source.”

Sam looked around. The planet was gorgeous, but sadly lacking in anything that they could use.

“I think we lucked out.” She dropped to the grass next to him. “Unless the tablet’s got enough battery left.”

Baal snorted. “Nowhere near. We’re stuck here until Hank realises that we’re overdue.”

“It’s General Landry and we’re not due to check in for another two hours.”

“I know.” He tossed the tablet to one side and stretched out his legs. “It is beyond intolerable.”

“Baal, it’s the most gorgeous planet I’ve ever seen. It’s warm and dry, there are no predators and I have enough provisions to last us a couple of hours. I think we can survive.”

“I am going to die of boredom,” he replied.

Oh, just what she needed – a System Lord in a sulk. She rolled her eyes, then raided her pack in the hope of finding something to distract him with. Her hand brushed the energy bars. Pulling one out, she threw it at him. Rather harder than was strictly necessary.

He threw her a withering look. “I’m not hungry.”

Sam counted down from ten. Then she looked around. “All right, then let’s go exploring.”

“Why?”

“Because otherwise I’m going to throttle you.” She got up and nudged his hip with her foot again. “Come on.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Move or I’ll shoot you.”

Baal sighed and got to his feet. His expression was one of bored tolerance and Sam had to fight the urge to smack it off him. She debated leaving him behind, but she wanted someone to talk to. Even if that someone was a sulky Goa’uld.

She trudged down the gentle slope of the hill to where a river cut lazily through a flower-strewn meadow. There needed to be fairies or unicorns or possibly a rainbow.

“You know, Hollywood would kill for this location.”

“Mention it to Hank – perhaps we could earn some dollars from this little discovery. We’re not getting anything else from it.”

“Do you practise that, or does being Scrooge come naturally?”

“There is nothing here of worth and we are stuck for two hours. I am sorry if being somewhat irritated at this utter waste of time annoys you.”

“You annoy me full-stop.” Sam sat on moss covered rock and undid the laces of her boots. “I thought you knew that.”

“Then why did you request my presence?” Baal smirked at her. “And alone?”

“I asked for you because you know Ancient and I didn’t ask for anyone else so there weren’t witnesses to my shooting you.” Sam pulled off her boots and removed her socks. “If you think that I knew we’d end up stuck and had some weird ulterior motive, you’ve wrong.”

He smirked wider.

“Very, very wrong.”

She rolled her trousers up over her knee and then dipped one foot into the river. It was warmer than she’d expected, so she stuck her other foot in. Then frowned down at the water.

“It’s warm.”

“Excellent. That means your feet aren’t going to freeze off and I don’t have to carry you to the ‘Gate. I’ve seen how much you eat.”

Sam ignored the jibe; too busy tracing the flow of the river through the heart-breakingly beautiful countryside to the snow-capped mountains.

“Baal,” she said slowly. “Something’s wrong.”

The bored look dropped from his face and he stiffened. The shift in stance was very subtle, but she knew he was alert and ready for action. Whatever action was necessary.

“What? Where?”

“I don’t know. Just... this water is warm and it shouldn’t be. This whole place...” She scrambled out of the river, slipping a little. Baal grabbed her, going into Protective Alpha Male Mode faster than she could blink. “It’s too perfect. Like something from a film or a fairytale. I-I don’t think it’s real.”

She was pulled tight against his side as his eyes scanned for danger. On one hand, she appreciated his concern, on the other being held kinda hampered her ability to get to her gun.

“What would be the purpose of such a thing?”

She extracted herself, offering him a small smile and a shrug. “How should I know? It just is.”

He stared at her. “Risk assessment?”

“I have no idea. I mean, why would someone create a picture-perfect planet?” She looked towards the ‘Gate. “Unless it’s a trap.”

“It’s not a very good one,” Baal said and Sam supposed he would know.

“Well, what do you think?”

He threw her a glare and then looked round. His fingers tapped against his leg. She waited, knowing he was considering all the options and was, unfortunately, more intelligent than she was.

“How does this place make you feel?” he asked then and she blinked.

“What?”

“It was a simple question, Samantha.”

“I don’t know. It’s nice. Very nice. I... It makes me feel peaceful, contended.” Tension ebbed from her as she took in her surroundings, even though she suspected a trap. “Um, relaxed.”

“Perhaps it was intended as a pleasure planet.”

Given the choice, Sam would rather deal with rampaging hoards of... whatever. Anything other than a rampaging Goa’uld who had trouble understanding the concept of asexual.

“You are kidding me. Tell me it’s not affecting you.”

“I feel fine.”

“That’s not an answer! I feel fine!” She clenched her fists and cursed whatever fate had trapped her offworld with Baal of all people. But the anger was a good thing. Right? “Okay, I feel angry. That means it can’t be a pleasure planet, surely?”

“It was only a theory.”

“Crap theory. I am not being stuck for two hours on a pleasure planet with you.”

“Like I was any happier about being stuck with you.”

“You’re so sweet. I’ve no idea why the ladies aren’t lined up outside your door.”

Baal smirked. “Who said they aren’t?”

“Oh, that’s disgusting.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“You’re insane and I am not having this conversation.”

Sam stalked off, his laughter following her. Bastard. He probably did have a harem in the SGC – it wasn’t as if he was ugly and he could be charming when he made the effort. Not that she had first-hand experience of that.

She was not jealous. She didn’t care if he slept with every other woman on the base. She wanted nothing to do with him whatsoever. And if she kept telling herself those things, she might even believe them.

The Stargate loomed ahead of her, the empty ring mocking her. She pulled a face and knelt by the DHD. Maybe hell had frozen over and he’d missed something.

After a while, she realised two things – the first thing was that Baal remained curiously absent, the second was it was getting darker. She looked up. The sun was setting, which considering it wasn’t supposed to for at least four hours was a little disconcerting. She tapped her radio.

“Baal?” Static. A chill ran over her skin. “Baal, come in.”

No joy. She got to her feet and drew her sidearm. Heading back to the river, she searched for her errant System Lord. She found him sat on the rock, her boots at his feet. Fisting her hands, she stalked over. Then stopped.

His expression was one she’d never seen on his face and it took a moment to register. When it did, she felt the shock like a punch to her stomach.

She loosened her hands and walked over. “Hey.”

“I know what this place is.”

“Oh? What?”

A smile ghosted over his lips. “D’you know that Ancients mate for life? Actually, properly, as in when one of them dies, the other does as well?”

She hadn’t known that. “No. So... what?”

“So that sort of power, sourced in one particular place, creates its own world.” He snorted. “Love and hope and dreams. That’s what made this planet, Samantha. That’s why it’s so damn perfect.”

The bitterness in his tone cut into her. She put a hand on his shoulder, no real idea of why he needed comfort, only that he did.

“It’s where they were married?”

“Indeed.”

“I couldn’t imagine somewhere better,” she admitted. “Well, excepting that without the ‘Gate working there’d be no honeymoon.”

“I assume the non-working status of the Stargate is a fairly new occurrence.” His voice was still flat. “Though if you were looking for somewhere as a honeymoon...”

Sam looked at him. “You wanna talk about it?”

He glared back. “About what?”

“About whatever’s bugging you.”

Baal snorted and waved a hand towards the sunset. There were just enough fluffy clouds to make it utterly stunning, with every shade of red and yellow she could have imagined.

“If this place gets any more cloyingly romantic, I’m going to be ill.”

Sam squeezed his shoulder and settled down on the grass. Propped her chin on her folded hands she stared at him. He rolled his eyes and snorted again. Looked away. Looked back. Sighed.

“I could rule the entire galaxy and still not have one thing.” His eyes were distant as he took in the sunset. Sam tilted her head.

“Which is?” she promptly softly.

“A family.”

She blinked, having not expected that answer. Staring at him, she considered a lifetime of hundreds of years and never really connecting. Her eyes blurred and she found the grass suddenly very interesting.

“I never thought,” she admitted, quiet and sober. “Oh, Baal.”

He shrugged. “Don’t pretend to care, Samantha. I’m not in need of a pretence at sympathy.”

Given her attitude to him recently, she supposed he had every right to dismiss her. Unable to say anything, she plucked despondently at the grass as the sky darkened further. Within minutes it was fully night, with bright stars and a gently undulating aurora.

She wasn’t sure why she was surprised.

Her gaze shifted back to Baal. His mood seemed to have improved a little, though he didn’t look terribly impressed with the kaleidoscope of colours weaving across the sky. Then again, after two thousand years, he’d probably seen it all before.

“Why did you demand to join the SGC?”

It still bugged her that he’d talked himself out of incarceration of Area 51 and into Stargate Command. Never mind his tendency to works his way into any mission she was given, be that off world or in the lab. And yeah, she’d asked for him this time, but only because Daniel was busy and Baal knew Ancient better than she did.

He looked at her. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, you could have done anything, given most of the IOA seem to be in your fan club.” Mostly because of the amount of information he’d fed them. Sam doubted half of it was true, but that wasn’t her call. “So I wonder why, especially since you spend every off world mission complaining about something.”

“I complain because it annoys you.” Baal smirked. She would be annoyed at that, except it was better than the dead expression. “What else am I supposed to do, Samantha? Earth is entertaining to a point, but after a while I get bored with sitting around.”

“It’s not a challenge.”

“Exactly.”

Sam smiled. That she understood – it was one of the reasons she refused a desk job. Why would she sit and do paperwork when there was so much out there to discover?

She looked up at him. “You needed a purpose.”

He snorted, but he didn’t deny it. After a moment, he hitched a shoulder. It was all the admittance she was going to get, but all she needed.

“I’m sorry,” she said. He arched an eyebrow at her. “For making your life difficult. I just... it seemed you got away with everything and got your own way and it pissed me off.”

“I’m good at landing on my feet.”

“And you’ve more than nine lives.”

He grinned at her, then slid gracefully off the rock so that he was sat next to her. He held out a hand. Sam rolled her eyes, but took it and shook. As a peace accord it probably wouldn’t last very long – they were too used to arguing – but she’d take what she could.

She gave a soft laugh. He seemed to live for doing exactly the opposite of what she expected, contrary to a point and utterly impossible. But he did it with such charm that it was hard to stay mad at him for long.

They sat there for a while in companionable silence, watching the aurora. Though it was dark, the temperature didn’t drop and it was still pleasantly warm. A gentle breeze brushed through Sam’s hair.

“All I have is a brother, a nephew and a niece. The rest of my family is gone.”

“I heard about your father. I’m sorry.”

Oddly, he sounded it as well. She suspected there’d been a grudging sort of respect between him and her dad, as much as she had sort of been thankful for his help.

“He doesn’t know about the Stargate program, so I don’t see him all that often. It can get... lonely.” She never told another person that, not even Daniel. She looked at Baal. “I get it, you know.”

“You are remarkably intelligent for a female of your species.”

She raised her eyebrows. “That was almost a compliment. You’re slipping.”

“Pah, I am not.” He lifted his chin and stared off into the distance for a moment. Then his shoulders dropped and he cast her a wry smile. “Perhaps. I enjoy conversing with you because you are intelligent. And you’re not afraid of saying what you think. It’s rather refreshing and I... like it.”

“Oh, you’re not all that bad. A little arrogant and a lot impossible, but...” She grinned into the darkness. “Every time you call General Landry by his first name he gets this pained look and you only have to look at Woolsey to shut him up. I kind of like that.”

“Rebel,” he chuckled.

She shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

“I kind of like that.”

“Oh, big shock.”

He laughed. She looked at him for a moment, then shifted closer. He arched the eyebrow again, but didn’t pull away as she leant against his arm. A small smile tugged at his mouth.

“You know, maybe this place isn’t that bad after all,” he said. Sam just smiled.


End file.
